My friend Kat won't go in the ocean. Every time she does, she gets hurt. She's lost trust in the idea. She's not alone in that. I once had another friend who said she wouldn't go in the ocean. In her case, the sea was bound inextricably in her mind to the idea of tragedy. It could strike again, that tragedy: the sudden suck of the sea, the vicious sting of the hidden jellyfish, the shark idly circling in the murky depth below. "I won't go in the ocean."